Find out how popular the last name Perrez is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Perrez.

Perrez, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Perrez surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Perrez in America

Perrez is the 74826th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Perrez surname appeared 258 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Perrez.

We can also compare 2010 data for Perrez to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Perrez

The surname Perrez is believed to have originated in Spain and Portugal during the medieval period. It is derived from the Spanish word "perro," meaning dog, and the suffix "-ez," which denotes a patronymic surname. The name likely referred to someone who was associated with dogs, perhaps a dog breeder, trainer, or hunter.

The earliest recorded instances of the Perrez surname can be found in various historical documents from the 13th and 14th centuries in the Iberian Peninsula. One notable mention is in the Repartimiento de Sevilla, a record of land distribution in Seville after the city's reconquest from the Moors in 1248, where the name Perez is listed among the recipients of land grants.

In the 15th century, the Perrez surname appeared in the Archivo General de Indias, the Spanish colonial archives, indicating that individuals with this surname were among the early Spanish settlers in the Americas. Pedro Perrez, born around 1460 in Seville, was one of the first Spaniards to establish a settlement in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic) in the late 15th century.

The Perrez surname also has a notable presence in the Basque Country, a region straddling northern Spain and southwestern France. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in this area is Juan Perrez de Ayala, a Basque nobleman born in the late 14th century who served as a military commander and diplomat during the reigns of King Henry III and King John II of Castile.

In Portugal, the surname is often spelled as Perez or Peres, and it can be traced back to the 13th century. One prominent figure with this name was Nuno Peres, a 14th-century Portuguese explorer and navigator who played a significant role in the early Portuguese maritime explorations along the West African coast.

Other notable individuals with the Perrez surname throughout history include:

1. Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (c. 1256-1309), a Spanish nobleman and military leader who played a crucial role in the Reconquista, the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors.

2. Catalina Pérez (c. 1544-1626), a Spanish sculptor and painter active during the Renaissance period, known for her highly detailed polychrome wood carvings.

3. Antonio Pérez (c. 1540-1611), a Spanish statesman and secretary of Philip II of Spain, who was later exiled and became a key figure in the Aragón Revolt against the king's authority.

4. Gonzalo Pérez de Ledesma (c. 1517-1587), a Spanish poet and cleric who was part of the Spanish Renaissance literary movement.

5. Baltasar Pérez Galdós (1843-1920), a renowned Spanish novelist and playwright who is considered one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century and a pioneer of the realist literary movement in Spain.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Perrez

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Perrez.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Perrez was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Perrez has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Perrez was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Perrez, please contact us.

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